Overcoming Poverty He Passed the Bar; Then His Suboxone Screwed Him

NON-GUILTY AS CHARGED –

March 2, 2024 – Buprenorphine had changed Scott’s life — it gave him a sense of normalcy, he said, and set him on the path to law school. His future, however, would come to hinge on a choice that didn’t feel like much of a choice at all: get off the medication that protected him from relapse and attend abstinence-only treatment, or lose his chance to become a lawyer. On his bar application, Scott disclosed that he had been convicted of three misdemeanors nearly two decades earlier, as well as accused of other criminal charges that would ultimately be expunged from his record. To his surprise, those disclosures would thrust him into a nearly three-year battle over his right to use buprenorphine, a Food and Drug Administration-approved medication that addiction medicine experts and top federal health officials call the “gold standard” of treatment for opioid use disorder.

“I almost felt like I was being punished,” Scott said.

Though it’s not well known, the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with substance use disorder. Those protections extend to people who use what are known as medications for opioid use disorder, or MOUD, which include buprenorphine and methadone. Both medications curb withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and substantially reduce the risk of overdose.

Still, these medications remain strikingly underutilized nationwide, and the fraction of patients fortunate enough to access them often face obstacles similar to Scott’s.